One hundred people died in Alaska from opioid overdoses in 2017, according to new preliminary data from state public health officials.

The total number of overdose deaths is about the same as the year before, when the state recorded 96 opioid-related deaths.

But the numbers show a dramatic shift in Alaska's opioid epidemic: Fatal overdoses from fentanyl or other synthetic opioids more than quadrupled in a year, from eight cases recorded in 2016 to 37 last year, according to the Alaska...